The many deaths of Optimus Prime

Oh, he's gone and died again. Botheration! Most inconvenient.

Across the various continuities, Optimus Prime dies a lot. This happens for various reasons:

• It allows for him to be replaced by a new character (and thus a new toy).
• It allows for him to come back from the dead in a new body (again, a new toy).
• It's dramatic (in theory).
• It makes him into something of a Christ-figure.
• It allows for numerous memorials to be constructed in his honor (though they're sometimes built even before he dies, morbidly enough).

Nearly every continuity family has featured Optimus Prime dying at least once; the only exceptions are the Primes from the 2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon (though only just), IDW Generation 1 continuity (though not without multiple near-death experiences), and Shattered Glass (since in that case, it's Megatron's job).

Some examples:

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Dying before he's even Optimus Prime (he's that good).

• Orion Pax died (or was at least severely damaged by Megatron) and had to be rebuilt into Optimus Prime by Alpha Trion. It's possible that if Orion had not been repaired, Optimus Prime would have ceased to exist. Pax's girlfriend Ariel was also heavily damaged, and rebuilt into Elita One. They were with their friend Dion when they were attacked by Megatron, although it is unknown if he was likewise rebuilt (That hasn't stopped people from discussing which of the Autobots Dion might have become for several decades, though). War Dawn

The Transformers: The Movie

"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

• The best-known example is from The Transformers: The Movie, in which Optimus Prime infamously dies of wounds from his battle with Megatron. Notably, his body turns gray as he dies. (Urban legend says his body also crumbles, but no such footage is known to exist.) Being the first time he died, it was actually unexpected.

Kiss Players

• Sometime between 2005 and 2010, Marissa Faireborn revives Optimus using the Galvatron cells in her body... by kissing him. Ultimately, all the cells are put back into Galvatron, and without them, Optimus promptly dies again. You, I and the Spinning Earth

The Transformers Season 3

"He's passed on! This Optimus is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his rectifier coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-AUTOBOT!!"

• He returns from the dead twice; first as a zombie under Quintesson control in "Dark Awakening" as part of a plan to destroy the Autobots, only to die again when he overcomes the Quintesson control through the power of the Matrix and possibly the strength of his will, and sacrifices himself to save the Autobots.
• He then was brought to life again (and stayed alive) in "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1".

The Headmasters

"...I'm dead."
"YES, you are!"
"You think that's funny, Jennings?!"

• In The Headmasters, Prime's death in The Transformers: The Movie was sort-of recreated in a flashback montage at the beginning of "Four Warriors Come out of the Sky", but not really. Rather than die while taking down his ultimate nemesis in a one-on-one struggle to the death to defend his city, his comrades, the planet Earth, and freedom itself, he just kind of gets randomly shot while in the middle of an ordinary battle outside of the Autobot Headquarters, and turns gray. Nobody else seems to notice this. It's not clear that Prime himself notices it. It's about the most half-hearted death ever.

• Optimus Prime later died again — in another act of self-sacrifice, of course — when he walked into Vector Sigma and tried to bring it back under control directly in "Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime". His body turned gray as he died, followed by a (likely only symbolic) scene of him telling Rodimus Prime that it would be his responsibility to keep leading the Autobots and to continue his work, seen as a transparent, light-haloed figure against the sky and heard in third person narration as Rodimus stared into the sky. (Then again, given the proven existence of ghosts...)

Return of Convoy

• The Battlestars managed to restore Optimus's life with the power of the Zodiac, evolving him into Star Convoy in The Battlestars.

Generation 2

• In the Japanese version of Generation 2, Optimus Prime was badly wounded by Megatron's fusion cannon and almost died, but was resurrected and evolved yet again, this time into Laser Rod Optimus Prime, by the power of the Reconfiguration Matrix. G-2 #13

Marvel Comics continuity

Generation 1

"Give me my face!"

• In "Afterdeath!", Optimus Prime, after failing to live up to his moral principles while playing a video game against Megatron, actually volunteers to be killed. The Autobots launch his funeral bier into space. Fortunately, the creator of the video game, Ethan Zachary, saves a backup copy of Prime's mind on a floppy disk. We first meet this virtual Prime sixteen issues later in "Pretender to the Throne!". He gets his new Powermaster body two issues thereafter, in "People Power!".

• A previous attempt was made at making virtual Prime a new body in "Totaled!". The body spontaneously blew up.

• About thirty issues later, Prime sacrifices himself again to defeat Unicron, in "On the Edge of Extinction!". But he didn't actually die until "Still Life!". However, his Powermaster partner, Hi-Q, survives, and almost immediately begins babbling about how he's really Optimus Prime. This turns out to be true, and the Last Autobot metamorphoses Hi-Q into Prime (with a new Action Master body) in the last issue of the original Marvel US series.

Generation 2

Unleashing the light of the Matrix upon a great evil. Again.

• This Prime wasn't done dying yet. His adventures continued in the G2 comics, and he died defeating the Swarm in the final issue of that series, "A Rage in Heaven!". The Swarm reconstituted him three pages later (in a body based on his then-current Hero toy).

Regeneration One

• In "The War to End All Wars, Part 5", despite being possessed by the Dark Matrix creature, a wounded Optimus Prime was able to help Rodimus Prime and Circuit Smasher stop the creature's plan to spread across the multiverse from Zero Space. At the conclusion of the conflict, Rodimus and Spike bore witness as Optimus died in his protege's arms in the Primus chamber.

IDW Generation 1 continuity

• It looks like this Optimus Prime made a habit of almost dying even before he became a Prime - Megatron shoots him in the back in Autocracy issue 8, and one issue later every Autobot believes Orion Pax is dead... but is he? (SPOILER ALERT: No, he's not.) Overthrown
• In his first battle with the Ore-13 powered Megatron, Optimus was killed. Escalation issue 5 Or at least, his main body was: by quickly downloading his consciousness into Combat Deck (and then back again), Optimus was able to survive. Being that close to death meant he briefly existed in a limbo state, which got him noticed by Nova Prime in the Dead Universe. Escalation issue 6
• He then spends the first half of All Hail Megatron badly damaged and near death. He is revived, however, when Kup and his crew arrive.
• A rare metaphorical version occurs when he leaves Cybertron to appease the anti-Autobot NAILs. With no duties or lives to mind but his own, and no Matrix to carry, he claims that Optimus Prime is dead, but Orion Pax has been reborn. The Death of Optimus Prime Of course, just like the real deaths, this one doesn't stick; Orion later reclaims the Optimus name during his final battle with Nova Prime. Finis Temporis

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Beast Wars cartoon

"I'm not quite dead yet! I feel happy!"

In Beast Wars and Beast Machines, you could mark the end of a season by the near-death experience of one Optimus or another...

• At the end of the first season of Beast Wars, Optimus Primal piloted a bomb-equipped stasis pod in an attempt to destroy the Planet Buster. Unfortunately, Megatron had sealed the pod's hatch, and Optimus blew up with it. Early in the second season (a few hours later as far as the characters were concerned), Rhinox managed to unite Optimus's drifting spark with a blank protoform, thus bringing him back to life (and in a new Transmetal body, too).

• At the end of second season, the Beast Wars Megatron came very close to killing the original Optimus Prime. But Prime didn't quite die, so we really shouldn't count it.

(Strangely, the end of the third season of Beast Wars had no Optimus deaths whatsoever! A half-dozen others died, but not Optimus.)

Beast Machines cartoon

• At the end of the first season of Beast Machines, Optimus and Megatron had a cataclysmic battle, using the energies of Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber. This would have destroyed Cybertron, but Optimus took the warring energies into himself and disintegrated. However, his spark was trapped within the Oracle, and the other Maximals convinced him to return to the real world at the start of second season. The Oracle kindly gave him a new body (which, believe it or not, was not a new toy).

• At the end of the series, Optimus Primal gave his life to defeat Megatron once and for all, pushing him into the technorganic core of the planet. In assorted ancillary media (convention comics, text stories), he comes back to life yet again.

2001 Robots in Disguise

He's one of the only Primes that didn't die! However, he came very close in the final battle, when he planned to sacrifice himself to stop Galvatron.

Unicron Trilogy

Armada cartoon

Now Optimus, don't go all to pieces. You say you have to split? Well, you're a chip off the ol' block.

• In the Armada episode "Crisis", Optimus Prime used his body to block the blast of Megatron's Hydra Cannon, protecting the Earth. When the cannon's energy is spent, we see Optimus turn grayish-white, then actually crumble to bits. A bunch of Mini-Cons use the Matrix to resurrect him three episodes later.

Armada comic

• The corpse of an Optimus Prime from an alternate universe where he was killed by Unicron appeared in the Armada comic issue titled "Worlds Collide, Part 1 of 4". Yep, practically all we know about this Optimus is that he died. He doesn't turn gray, but his colors are faded.

Universe

Technically, this is the clone.

• The corpse of an Optimus Prime (killed by Megazarak) from an alternate universe was cloned by Unicron to create Nemesis Prime. The clone, before he became Nemesis, appeared in Cybertron comic issue "Balancing Act, Part 2". Once again, practically all we know about this Optimus is that he died.

Movie continuity

Though Optimus Prime doesn't die in the first movie itself, he does consider fusing the AllSpark into his own spark, an action that would destroy them both, if necessary to keep it out of Decepticon hands.

Transformers The Game

In Decepticon mode storyline, Optimus Prime was beaten to the ground, and as he crawled for the AllSpark, Megatron smashed his head with his flail ... poor Prime, he gets the most violent death. Transformers The Game (console)

Titan Magazines Transformers movie comics

The following events occur in a splinter timeline where Megatron won the battle of Mission City.

Optimus was left in a frozen, near-death state. Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part: 1

Revenge of the Fallen movie

Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, you give love a bad name!

This is perhaps the most brutal Prime death to date, in keeping with the rather more graphic nature of combat in the live-action movies. To protect Sam Witwicky, Optimus Prime engaged in a fierce battle with Megatron, Starscream, and Grindor. Despite injuring Starscream and destroying Grindor by ripping his head apart, Optimus is viciously run-through from behind by Megatron and then blasted through the back, killing him. While dead, Optimus' body is depicted with faded colours in reference to his history of turning grey upon death. This event causes Sam to follow the symbols the AllSpark sliver placed in his mind to find the ancient Matrix of Leadership, the only thing that could restore life to Optimus. Unfortunately, it crumbled into dust upon touching it in the Tomb of the Primes on the border between Egypt and Jordan. During the climactic battle in Egypt between NEST and the Decepticons, Sam was seemingly killed by Megatron, only to be taken to another plane of existence where he met the Primes who died to prevent The Fallen from achieving victory, and they bestowed upon him the true Matrix, which allowed Sam to revive Optimus. Revenge of the Fallen

In the novelization of Revenge of the Fallen, unlike the movie, it is explicitly stated that Optimus Prime survived Megatron's attack, but was so badly damaged his body had gone into stasis lock, and would likely stay that way for many years while his body repaired itself if not for Sam's intervention.

Animated

Animated cartoon

It's a new record, Primey!

In the third part of the Animated movie, "Transform and Roll Out", Optimus Prime dies after his battle with Starscream. Like the Generation 1 Prime before him, he turns gray upon dying. Seventy-five seconds later - for us AND for the characters - Sari Sumdac uses the mysterious AllSpark Key to revive him.

The Cool comic

During their final battle on earth, Megatron fired a devastating blast from his fusion cannon which was super charged by Starscream's AllSpark-fragment-powered head before driving one of his swords straight through Optimus' chest and spark. However this, somehow, did not completely kill him as his cries of justice and heroics caused his spark to shine and made a reaction from the shard in Starscream's head, which flew at Optimus giving him new power and a new body. The Cool Episode Final

Henkei! manga

A Nightmare, Once Again

Aligned

Prime cartoon

Following the creation of a Decepticon fortress practically on the Autobots' doorstep, Optimus had the others evacuate the base while he heroically stayed behind to destroy the GroundBridge to cover their retreat. He was still in the base when the Decepticons blew it up. Darkest Hour Smokescreen pulled him from the rubble and he lay dying in a cavern for several days. Darkmount, NV His lingering death seemed like it was coming to an end when he had a vision of the bright light of the Allspark and spoke with Alpha Trion. In the real world, the light faded from Optimus's optics and his chest opened to reveal the Matrix, at which point Smokescreen used the Forge of Solus Prime to return him to life in a new, upgraded body. Rebellion

To defeat Unicron the second time, Optimus had to merge the AllSpark with the Matrix of Leadership so he could use the empty container to entrap his foe. This essentially resulted in his own spark becoming one with the AllSpark, and thus in order to restore the AllSpark to its rightful place, Optimus was required to make the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, giving up his own existence so that Cybertron might bear new life. Predacons Rising

Rescue Bots cartoon

While traveling back in time to the year 1939 in order to save the Rescue Bots from Doctor Morocco, The Autobots and the human children attempt to escape through the time portal to the present. However, while the rest of the team makes it through the portal back to the future, it abruptly closes, seemingly trapping Optimus. It appeared that the Autobot leader was lost in time. The portal however, suddenly reopens, and Optimus jumps out. When they emerge from the lab, they find Griffin Rock greatly changed. This was another near death experience for Optimus Prime. It's a Bot Time

See also

• Primus apotheosis
• Death
• Prime Spark - The short story explores the question of where all most of those Optimus-es go when they die. (Answer: someplace dull.)
• God Ginrai - Often erroneously put in this category.
• Dirge (G1) - The appropriately named, yet very unlucky guy who gets killed off in many continuities (but less than Optimus Prime).
• Sentinel Prime - The Prime who must always die (Usually).
• Cy-Kill, who is repeatedly killed COS HE SUCKS LOLOLOLOL.
• Starscream - He dies a lot.